For the wages of sin are death...

Last night I had opportunity to think on the mercy and sovereignty of God in salvation and how simple it seems to be. Recently I have thought again of the purity of the gospel message and how almost the whole evangelical world has a disconnect in thought about this gospel. Think about it with me; we remember Jesus' parable about the men who worked in the field and earned wages from the master of the field. The main thrust of this parable was that the master gave at a minimum exactly what each had earned justly. Then he gave extra to some of these workers. I do not think that this verse from Romans uses the word "wages" by coincidence. We all, the whole world of people, have sinned and earned everlasting condemnation. If God would have walked away from this world and dropped it in hell, He would have given all of us the just wages that we earned. I think most evangelicals would agree up to this point. But after here is the disconnect for these people. Can not God be merciful to some? Just like the field owner who gave more to some, could not God effectually save some of us? It is at this point that the evangelicals cry that "this is not fair!" But this last statement is the only logical conclusion of the first several premises. One can not agree to that point and logically disagree with the conclusion. I think this is why there seems to be a growing trend in the christian world to downplay the seriousness of sin and thus the reality of hell. If hell is not real, then the whole gospel can be changed. And, this illustrates how important it should be to the christian to retain a keen understanding of the reality of hell and even speak of that reality and its various aspects to others, even in the church meetings!